Copenhagen Guide
Introduction
Copenhagen is Scandinavia's most vibrant and affordable capital. Small and welcoming, it's a place where people rather than cars set the pace, with a multitude of pavement cafés, pedestrianized thoroughfares and cycle lanes. It also offers a range of entertainment that belies its relatively modest size: by day, there's a cornucopia of historic royal palaces, national museums, galleries, lovely parks and excellent shopping; by night, there are plenty of cosy bars and an intimate club and live music network that could hardly be bettered. It's a city that comes into its own in summer – cafés spill out onto the streets, live music (especially jazz) is around every corner, and the harbourfrontcomes to life.
The wave of modern buildings along the harbourfront aside, architecturally, much of the city dates from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a cultured ensemble of handsome Renaissance palaces, parks and merchant houses laid out around the waterways and canals that give Copenhagen, in places, a pronounced Dutch flavour. Successive Danish monarchs left their mark, in particular Christian IV, creator of many of the city's most striking landmarks – including Rosenborg Slot and the district of Christianshavn – and Frederik V, who graced the capital with the palaces of Amalienborg and the grandiose Marmorkirken.
Historically, Copenhagen owes its existence to its position on the narrow Øresund strait separating Denmark from Sweden and commanding the entrance to the Baltic – one of the great trading routes of medieval Europe and now the site of the region's grandest engineering feat, the massive Øresunds Bridge. It's this location, poised between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe, which continues to give Copenhagen its distinctive character. The city is more laid back than the relatively staid capitals further north, but is also a flagship example of the Scandinavian commitment to liberal social values – exemplified by its laid-back attitudes to everything from gay marriage to pornography – and its continued (if precarious) respect for the unique "Free City" of Christiania.